Chasing The Stars
by TheGirlWithKaleidoscopeEyes27
Summary: Annabeth lies on the oval every wednesday morning at 3 am letting the stars help her forget, and Percy, the inhumanely motivated soccer aspirant, jogs past her every morning. When they keep meeting coincidentally will their relationship become something more than fleeting glances, Will Annabeth let Percy help her to move on? Percabeth- not as sappy as it sounds MAY CONTAIN TRIGGERS
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Guys!**

**I finally got off my butt and wrote another story hope you enjoy it (and i hope ive improved from my last one!)**

**Fhank you for your continued support if you've read my other story or welcome if this is your first time reading my stuff.**

**And (again with the self promoting) i would love if you could follow my tumblr, they get sneak peaks and updates earlier there. it is thegirlwithkaleidoscopeeyes2712**

**DISCLAIMER: i do not own any of the characters, ideas or anything to do with Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Hero's of Olympus**

**Thank you and don't forget to review constructive criticism is always welcomed warmly!**

**Chasing The Stars: Chapter 1**

When some people looked up at the night sky they felt insignificant. Like their whole lives couldn't possibly mean anything in the unfathomably vast expanse of stars above them.

And who could blame them, I mean with your naked eye alone you can see hundreds of stars all shining back at you, each with a solar system of their own. And those stars are only the tiniest percent of the billions that make up our galaxy, which in turn is only one of an infinite number floating around in the void we call space.

And then, of course, there's black holes and dark energy and supernovas and the ever present and terrifying end of the universe to worry about.

So really, its not too far fetched to feel insignificant, to be frightened by the notion that nothing you do in your blink of a lifetime, in a universe that's already 13.7 billion years old, will ever have more impact than someone losing an eyelash.

But Annabeth didn't feel that. Didn't feel crushed by the unimportance of her own existence. She felt free. Like everything wrong decision she ever made couldn't matter that much anymore, like maybe it wasn't her fault…

That's why she lay there now, surrounded only by the universe and her own thoughts, the luscious grass, a rarity where she came from, cushioning her back as the dew seeped through her hoodie and the little bugs, that she really wanted to find the name of, tickling her skin.

In fact that's why she lay here every Wednesday morning at precisely 3 am on the oval down the road where once upon a time she played soccer. It used to be a coping mechanism but now it had become a sort of tradition that she felt obliged to keep up.

Plus there was the sort-of-not-really-attractive guy that she'd never talked to before who ran past the oval at about 3:30 every morning that she definitely didn't have a crush on to keep her coming back. She thought she saw him look up at her every once in a while when he ran past on his crazily motivated jog (like seriously who got up at 3:30 to go jogging _every single morning_). She figured he might be a robot. An attractive one at that though, she couldn't help thinking.

And she was happy with the way things were, him on his inhumane jogs and her having her daily dose of existential crisis, neither of them wanting to disrupt their routines enough to talk to each other. Besides she figured admiring him from afar would entrance her much more than anything his no doubt boring personality would hold. But oh how wrong she was.

It was after about a month of Annabeth and the robot jogger sharing mutual looks of, 'its three am are you mad?' When that this unknown idiot ran past her twice in the same morning. She actually sat up she was so surprised.

She was even more surprised the next week when he slowed to a walking pace as he ran passed her and walked towards her, taking his earphones out as he went. She leant up onto her forearms, blades of grass digging into her skin, as he approached and gave him a quizzical look. The first thing he said was so abrasive that it almost threw her off guard. Almost.

"Are you deliberately trying to catch a cold or did you not realize that lying on a damp oval at the chilly hour of three am might result in some sniffling?" he then proceeded to look at her with what she might call a worried expression, hands on hips and only slightly puffing. But why would he be worried about her? This was the first time he'd ever seen her up close, other than fleeting glances as he ran past.

Annabeth scoffed at his snarky excuse of a greeting and came right back at him with just as much force.

"Well you can talk, what are you doing out here marathoning every morning? Training for the zombie apocalypse?" she gave him her best glare, "And the reason I'm out here is none of your business." She then proceeded to gather up her phone and wallet and put them into her bag vigorously, while determinedly not looking at him.

As she stood up she saw that the expression on his face had changed to one that asked her of forgiveness, and he fidgeted with his ear bud that hung from his shirt nervously.

Just as she began to step away from him, he leaned forward grabbing her wrist lightly, making her turn around and look directly into his eyes. For the first time she noticed his eyes, took in the swirling pool of sea green and felt like she was falling into them completely entranced. She also felt quite envious. She'd always dreamed of having colorful eyes, ones that sparkled and brought back vibrant memories of happy times long past. But no she was stuck with these dull grey ones, the plainest of plain. Only then did she realize he was saying something.

"-Sorry I was just worried about you, I mean you're out here every Wednesday, and no one lies on an oval at three am contemplating the stars unless there's something wrong." He was now twisting furiously at the ear buds around his neck, she though he might pull them off. " And I thought maybe you wanted someone to talk to. There was probably a better way of expressing that I realize now. Actually now that I think about it, any other way would have better." He then looked down blushing and she gave a small laugh. The relief that flooded onto his face at her laugh was so comical that she had to stop herself from laughing again.

"It's alright." She said smiling, "and stop twisting your ear buds, they look expensive and I don't want you to break them just because I'm intimidating." He looked down then, dropping the offending items, and when he met her eyes again his face had erupted into a smile. She thought it might have been brighter than the big stadium lights they used to turn on at the oval when she practiced.

"Oh and ah…" then she stopped realizing she didn't know his name.

"Percy." He supplied, seeing her struggle.

"Percy," she said letting the name roll off her tongue. She liked it. It suited him with his striking black hair and mesmerizing green eyes. She let a smirk crawl onto her face. "You can let go of my hand now."

And the way he jumped back, retracting his hand as if it had been burned, a deep red blush forming on his face as he went to apologize, almost made her take pity on him.

Almost.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey Guys!**

**Thanks for the lovely reviews, they literally warmed my heart! keep em coming.**

**heres chapter two, just got it in before christmas because you guys are the best readers ever. **

**sorry if this chapters a bit boring, i just kinda got into the zone and wrote like 2000 words for one scene.**

**ok im out Merry Christmas hope you get lots of presents, or have a good holiday anyway if you dont celebrate christmas.**

**(This is written with the Australian schooling and soccer system in mind so sorry if its confusing for anyone!)**

**DISCLAIMER: i do not own any of the characters, ideas or anything to do with Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Hero's of Olympus**

**Chasing The Stars: Chapter 2**

Annabeth almost didn't come back to the oval the next Wednesday, it was supposed to be her time away from the world, her time to forget, and she knew that if she went back he would undoubtedly pester her again. But there was something about him that drew her back. Maybe it was the way he offered to give her a lift home at the end of their conversation, and when she pointed out that he did not, in fact, have any means of transport besides his own limbs, he stared really hard at the ground for a few seconds, as if he thought she was lying. He then proceeded to say, "Well if you're up for it." And then bent forward, like someone would if they were offering a piggy back, and smiled back at her cheekily. He'd earned a not-so-gentle slap to the shoulder for that one.

Or maybe that was what drew her back. They way that she was so unfathomably comfortable around him, as if she'd know him her whole life. She'd never made friends easily, never talked to strangers fluently, so the promise of a friendship in which she would need to waste no effort building was just to good an opportunity to miss.

Why she'd chosen this dork to be comfortable around she would never know. There had been plenty of guys that she'd met before, plenty of smart and presentable guys who her mother would have definitely approved of, but of course she had to choose the unfairly attractive dork who probably didn't even know what neutron star was.

But of course she'd never tell him the unfairly attractive bit.

"You can only talk to me on one condition." Annabeth said as way of a greeting from where she lay on her back, her blonde curls fanning out around her head.

"How did you even know I was here?" Percy said back, wiping the sweat from his forehead and taking a gulp of water. Annabeth was squinting up at him now, taking in the sweat stained blue shirt he wore and the muscles that were straining against the tight fabric.

"Because you sound like an elephant wearing fifty kilogram weights as shoes when you walk." She teased as she grinned up at him. He put a hand over his heart and displayed a look of mock hurt at her taunting.

"What's your condition then?" he asked as he sat down next to her and then stopped before he was lying down and frowned, "I mean the one you want me to agree to. I'm not implying you have a hair condition or anything."

Now it was her turn to put on the display of mock hurt.

"What are you trying to say, Jackson? If you think there's something wrong with my hair just tell me." He laughed at that, and Annabeth thought his laugh might be her new favourite song. "My condition is that you don't ask my why I come here every Wednesday."

"Well I may as well just leave now then because that's the only reason I came out here." He sighed and then he made to get up but sat down again when she gave him a mock glare. They then proceeded to have a mock glaring contest which Annabeth won and resulted in Percy unceremoniously falling forward, face into the grass.

"Ugh fine." He complained, "I agree to your sucky terms."

After a few seconds of breathing into the grass he lifted his head up and said, "why are you here?" she gave him her best 'are you serious look' but then he continued, "no I mean, why here? Why not a park, or a lake or… I donno somewhere with a bit of scenery?" her gaze on him softened.

"Its free." She said, "I don't mean money wise, just there's no walls or structures confining me, nothing caging me in. its just me the universe and an open field of grass. And then there's the stars of course, there's no trees constricting my view of them here, I can just look straight up at them, take them in properly.

She was looking up at the sky when she said this, lost in her thoughts. He was staring at her like she was glowing or something. "Why that stars?" he asked.

"Well it's not the stars so much as the universe. We don't understand it yet, we can't possibly understand it. Its too big and too complex and it never sits still for long enough." Her eyes were lighting up with the glint of wonder they always held when she was captivated. "And I can think about all of the crazy theories people come up with to explain it. Like the multiverse theory, where there's an infinite number of universes, where everything that can happen happens. Like there might be another universe where everything is exactly the same as this one except that I plucked that piece of grass up while we were having this conversation."

She stopped talking and looked over at him, and she blushed when she got caught in the intense power of his gaze. "Sorry I'm rambling." She muttered.

"No! Its really interesting." He said and then a silence lapsed between then. After a few seconds he reached forward and picked the piece of grass she gestured too during her explanation. She smiled at him warmly.

"So why are you here?" she asked after another few seconds of silence.

"Oh that's totally unfair! You get to ask me that question but I don't get to ask you!?" he said exasperatedly tossing the piece of grass away. "Unless you too are inquiring why I chose this location to jog?"

She smiled guiltily and looked down, picking at the grass as well.

"No I was asking that. I'm being a hypocrite, sorry." She said.

After a few seconds he smiled cheekily, a worrying glint catching in his eyes. He leaned over and nudged her shoulder with his playfully and, she thought hopefully, a little bit flirtily.

"Its fine, ill tell you. I don't have anything broody and sad to hide." She gave him an exasperated sigh for that one; he didn't now the half of it. "But, ill only tell you on one condition." He continued, "You have to give me your phone number."

She groaned at that. A phone number was a very risky thing to give away. Especially since should could tell Percy would be the kind of person to text her relentlessly and ask her ridiculous questions. But the need to find out something about this mysterious and kind and oh so addictive boy was ruling out anything that common sense was trying to tell her. I mean he could be a serial killer for all she knew. He could also probably make her feel alive with those amazingly soft lips of his and... Annabeth stop it. God, she really hated how much she acted like a lovesick teenager whenever she liked someone.

She screwed up her face, and then before she could stop herself she reached her hand towards him.

"Alright give me your phone. This better be good or I swear I will buy a new sim card just so that you don't have my phone number." He smiled triumphantly and then reached his hand up under the left sleeve of his shirt and pulled his iPhone out of the pouch that was strapped to his bicep. She admired the beautiful drawing of a wave that swirled on the back of his case as he unlocked it.

He passed it over and she laughed then caught herself and glared at him when she saw the name he'd put in for her. Annabeth broody mcbrood pants. She typed the first four digits in, and then squinted up at him, scrutinizing.

"You have to promise me that you wont text me every time you run out of milk or do something stupid ok?" Annabeth said before she typed in the rest of the numbers.

"And what makes you think that I'd run out of milk and be in such a panic that I needed your help?" he said crossing his arms over his chest, like a child trying to convince someone that they were tough.

It was her turn to smirk now as she put in the last digit.

"Because the word milk is written on your hand." She replied

Percy frowned and looked down at his hand as if he didn't believe her. Then he looked back up at her cockily.

"That doesn't tell you anything. I just wrote that to remind myself that I was running low on milk and needed to buy more. Im a responsible adult Annabeth, I can do my grocery shopping without needing your help."

She looked at him cockily now.

"Then why, Percy, are there three exclamation marks next to it all written in different colours." He poked his tongue at her childishly, "that suggests to me that you forgot to get milk on at least three different occasions, something I'm sure you'd feel obliged to text me about"

He nudged her in the shoulder again, and she found herself stupidly hoping that he'd keep his arm resting against hers, craving his contact.

"Oh, go away will you." He said teasing.

"Hey you're the one that ran over here to talk to me." She replied shrugging. She handed him his phone back, now complete with her number. "Anyway, you still haven't answered my question. Why the running?"

he took his phone back and pushed it into the pouch on his upper arm.

"I'm on a soccer team, I mean a professional one, premier league, and ive just been asked to join an A-League team. So I'm trying to get fit to an A-League level so that I don't look like an absolute failure when I start training with them."

Annabeth, to say the least, was impressed. A-league was the highest you could play before the national level, the Socceroos. She'd had dreams of playing at that level as a kid, where you got paid to play a sport, I mean what was the downside.

"Woah, Percy that's amazing!" she said earnestly, "I used to play soccer as a kid, and you've literally got my dream job."

"You played soccer?" Percy asked, "You mean I've actually got something in common with Annabeth Broody Mcbrood Pants?"

She gave him a well-deserved glare for that one.

"What's so surprising about me playing soccer?" Annabeth asked squinting at him.

"Nothing really, I suppose I just pegged you for an academic you know. Straight A's, no time for sport when there was debating and other intellectual extra curricular's to do."

"Oh I was an academic. I've never seen a B in my life. But I wasn't much good at debating and I'd started playing soccer before I was reading at a fifth grade level in year two. So I kept at it." She said, her eyes staring unfocused off into the distance now. "I was quite good actually, I played for ten years and I always hoped to take it further."

Percy was looking at her intently now, as if enchanted by her talking about their newfound common interest

"Why didn't you?" he said after a while.

"Oh, my parents made it quite clear that they weren't going to let their only child chase some stupid childhood dream of an athletic career." She replied, now angrily picking at the grass. "Story of my life really, me with my amazing dreams of the future and my parents cutting them down."

"That sucks." Percy said. And it did. It sucked so much that Annabeth had almost run away a number of times.

After a few seconds of silence Percy jumped up abruptly.

"How long's it been since you played?" he asked.

"I donno, years. It feels like centuries." She replied. It could've been centuries she missed it that much.

You could never quite recreate the feel of the wind blowing past you as you made a run down one of the wings. Glancing frantically around you, trying to keep track of the opposing player behind you and whether the rest of your teammates were open for a pass. And there was no way to explain the joy you felt when you sidestepped the last defender and broke through, smashing the ball into the top corner.

"Alright, I've got a plan." Percy said. "Meet me here, six o'clock tonight and wear some joggers." Then he proceeded to run off, jump over the fence that bordered the oval and disappear into the wall of dry trees behind it.

"Percy!" Annabeth called, but to no avail. She'd seen how fast he could run, he was probably ten kilometers away already.

She lay back down onto the grass again with a sigh, and wondered how someone could be so intriguing yet so utterly annoying at the same time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys,**

**I'm back from the dead! sorry for taking so long to upload but i had a busy christmas and then i couldn't get motivated enough to write for like 2 weeks. I've also recently started binge watching youtubers so that was also a contributor in why i haven't been writing.**

**Thanks for all the new reviews and favs and follows and just general support and interest of the story.**

**oh and go follow my tumblr, they got part of this chapter a few days ago. It is thegirlwithkaleidoscopeeyes2712.**

**Annnnd in the reviews someone asked how old Percy and Annabeth were in this story so- i imagine Annabeth to be 20 and Percy 21 because they are both in second year uni (University in Australia starts at 19 if you don't take a gap year)**

**and please ask me any questions you have about the story or any questions in general either on here or on tumblr.**

**DISCLAIMER: i do not own any of the characters, ideas or anything to do with Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Hero's of Olympus**

**Enjoy! theres some mysteries revealed in this chapter.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chasing the Stars: Chapter 3<strong>

Annabeth arrived at the oval at precisely six, always a punctual person, and was surprised that she had not received one text from Percy all day. She had been so sure that he was going to drown her in endless "why did the chicken cross the roads?" or "A guy walks into a bars..." that she found herself actually slightly disappointed… But only slightly.

She crunched her way through the fallen gum leaves and dead branches of late autumn that scattered the ground on the way to the oval, decked out in the entirely fashionable get up of sneakers, soccer shorts and an old t-shirt of no discernable colour. She reached the trees surrounding the playing fields and peered through the gap for any sign of Percy.

Instead she found herself confronted with at least 14 young men all decked out in soccer gear milling around the goal posts. Most were older than Percy, but they were all undeniably attractive. Her first thought was, 'oh god people' She never played well when there were stranger watching her, she felt judged and ended up trying not to stand out. That was of course until her competitive instincts came in and she unleashed all hell on the field of play, throwing her concerns to the wind. But she thought that maybe a dozen attractive guys and Percy, who she wasn't quite ready to admit fell into the first category as well, were too big a feat for her competitivism to overcome.

She was about to back away and text Percy to tell him that it looked like there was another event organized on the oval, until it occurred to her that this congregation of people was probably his doing. She was about to groan now realizing that she would have to play with them, when she thought that maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. And who was she kidding; the fact that they were attractive only made her more competitive. She wanted- no needed- to show that that not only could she, a girl beat them and do it with time to spare, but make it clear to those no doubt privileged jocks that her gender was definitely _not_ an insult.

She was about to charge in and start individually challenging each player when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She fished it out and stared at the screen blankly for a moment before the words sunk in and she hear the pounding footsteps.

**Percy Jackson: **incoming!

She turned around to see him about ten meters away and closing the distance quickly, arms outstretched and a devilish grin on his face.

In the moment it took him to reach her she realized that she might have been over reacting a bit, plotting a full on war with a group of people she'd never met before. But hey what ever gets you going before a game.

The game was actually the best fun Annabeth had had in a little over a year, and she wasn't even afraid to admit it. This was of course once she got over the shock of practicing with a premier squad, not quite A-League but most of the players were in higher level teams as well anyway.

She'd like to say that she ran circles around them, but the fact was that she hadn't played in years and you did have to be quite good to reach premier level.

The best moment of the whole night by far had been when she was running down the middle of the field having seen the perfect spot to be for a cross as one of her teammates ran down the left wing. She reached the far side of the goal and called out to the runner and got ready for the cross. Only just as he went to pass it Percy ran up behind her and lifted her into the air spinning her around and deliberately obstructing any chance of a goal. Everyone burst out in laughter. Even more so when Percy put her down and she turned to him, index finger raised intimidatingly.

"You are a complete and utter ass Percy Jackson" she scolded and poked him in the stomach, and then turned away in search of the ball.

"Well" he said as she walked off, "I can't argue with that."

Although she had to admit that when on the walk home, when he grabbed her hand as they crossed the road, insisting that he was making sure she got across safely, and then proceeded to not let go of her hand for the remainder of the walk, was also a pretty big contender for the 'best moment of the night' award.

Annabeth backed off a bit after that night. From Percy, from the happiness that was starting to leak into her long suffering heart at the thought of him. She learnt a long time ago that yes, you could have too much of a good thing, and she'd learnt it the hard way. And Percy was a very good thing, albeit a bit of a dorky one, but a good thing nonetheless. And she wasn't about to ruin that for him.

She rationed that if she stayed away from him and just kept the good memories, let them keep her from falling into a pit of despair again, then maybe she wouldn't get the hurt that she'd come to associate with good things.

The whole 'Avoid Percy Jackson' scheme wasn't as easy as it sounded though. She managed to escape his company at the oval that Wednesday night by lying down in the patch of trees by the field instead of in the open. She saw him slow and stop as he ran by the oval and look around for a few minutes before he ran off again, all that happiness that had been on his face as he approached the oval now wiped off.

However the rest of the week he seemed determined to find her, even if he didn't realize it. First of all there were his worried texts "Where are you? Are you ok? Whats wrong?" or when she hadn't answered after two days "Annabeth answer me or I will break down your door. I know where you live" she answered eventually something vague about being sick that he probably didn't buy.

She almost ran into him three times at various grocery stores throughout the week but managed to avoid him with a few spy like maneuvers she previously thought she wasn't capable of pulling off.

But when he turned up at her part time job at the quaint café in the almost deserted block of half a dozen shops in her suburb, she though he must have been doing some stalking. She was wiping down tables when he walked in, that seemed to be about the only thing she did in this shop with no customers, and managed to go unnoticed as he ordered a latte with two sugars at the counter, her order. She rushed off muttering something about the bathroom to the other waitress and was just about the open the door when she heard,

"Annabeth?" she muttered a curse under her breath and turned around to face him.

"Hi Percy." She said, trying to sound happy with what she hoped didn't look like a fake smile.

"Obviously you aren't dying of the plague as you made out in your texts." He said with a slight glare. She visibly winced.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought." She replied softly, not meeting his eyes. He shot her a look that said 'you expect me to believe that' with eyebrows raised and ground his teeth together.

"Look have I done something wrong Annabeth? Have I offended you in anyway? Because I was having a really good time with you and then you just disappeared." He said, his expression a battle of hurt and anger.

"no Percy, you didn't do anything wrong. Its just…" and then she stopped realizing that she couldn't tell him without _telling_ him.

"Its just what Annabeth? Why cant you just tell me?" he asked, the anger seeping into his voice now. Her eyes started to tear up and she looked away from him.

"I cant Percy. Just forget it." And she turned into the bathroom leaving him feeling ashamed behind the door.

She got to Jason's house for his party twenty minutes early and practically fell into his hug as he greeted her at the door. She was planning on having a nice catch up with him and drinking copious amount of alcohol to keep her guilt and pain at bay.

It had started off as planned, they went into the kitchen to finish laying out the food for the party and she started the conversation with what had become the norm over the past year.

"How are you holding up?" she asked as she emptied a packet of Cheezels into a bowl.

"Alright." He replied, "it's been easier since last month." She knew what last month was, the anniversary, a whole year since it had happened.

He popped a Cheezel into his mouth before he asked her, "What about you?"

"I'm ok. As good as I can be I s'pose." She replied also eating a Cheezel so that her contradictory emotions wouldn't show on her face.

"Come on, you don't expect me to believe that obvious lie. How are you really?" he asked leaning towards her, to show she had his full attention. She sighed and leaned back into the couch.  
>"There's good days and bad days. But she was my best friend for fifteen years. Its not like I'm gonna forget her or stop blaming myself in the blink of an eye." Annabeth said, her slight anger causing her to punctuate every word.<p>

"And I'm not saying you should." Jason said looking straight into her eyes so she couldn't shy away. "She was special to us, so it's up to us to remember her. But we've got to remember the good things. Who she really was, the person that could make you laugh with three words even if you thought you'd never laugh again." Annabeth let out a sad little giggle at that.

"Yeah she did have a knack for that didn't she." And she smiled up at Jason, a real smile this time, and he smiled back.

"You should try to find someone, not to replace her of course, but to fill in part of the hole. Someone you can love in a different way." He said poking her shoulder, "I did and I feel like I'm finally regaining some happiness."

"I did find someone." She said after a while. "At least I though I did. But you know I blame myself for what happened and I cant help but think, what if I do it to someone else? What if they want me to be there and I cant do it? I don't want to ruin someone else's life"

"Annabeth." Jason said softly and pulled her into a hug. "Its not your fault it was never your fault. It wont happen again." He whispered to her, determined to make her believe it.

And when they pulled apart he said, "She would have wanted you to be happy. And she would have teased you endlessly for it." She smiled at that.

"On the thought of teasing, who's this girl you've found?


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys!**

**Sorry for the long wait I'm really not good with this regular update thing! thanks for reading, reviewing, faving, following and all round supporting me i cant tell you how much it means to me, love you all.**

**this chapter is a bit heavy and probably not quite like the rest of the story, i didn't really plan it like this. this rest of the story will not be this heavy its just sort of a one off chapter so if you wanna skip this one and then come back ill make sure you don't miss out. i just had a lot to get of my chest and a lot to express is my explanation.**

**so MAJOR TRIGGER WARNINGS for a whole lot of things, if you are at risk please don't read and take care of yourself.**

**and again if you don't like this chapter the rest of the story will go back to as it is afterwards so bare with me.**

**Thanks again, you can also see me at thegirlwithkaleidoscopeeyes2712 on tumblr**

**DISCLAIMER: i do not own any of the characters, ideas or anything to do with Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Hero's of Olympus**

**Enjoy!**

**Chasing The Stars: Chapter 4**

Percy arrived about ten minutes after the party had really started and went straight up to Jason giving him a big back slapping hug. Annabeth just glared at him quizzically as she heard them exclaim about not seeing each other in forever. Then, on impulse she marched up to him, dragged him by the sleeve into the relatively uncrowded kitchen while he spun around frantically.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she said trying to burn him to the ground with her glare.

"Annabeth?" he said squinting at her, "what the hell are you doing here?"

Annabeth was about to start a round of 'I asked you first' when Jason burst into the room and went to stand between then as if he was breaking up a fistfight.

"Hey hey hey guys break it up!" he said pressing a hand to each of their shoulders to keep them apart and glared at them sternly. "What's all this abou-" and then he seemed to realize who the people he was talking to were and a puzzled expression came onto his face. "Wait how do you guys know each other?"

After a few seconds of glaring at each other like angry bulls, Percy said, "we've both got strange morning routines." And then he smiled sarcastically at Annabeth who rolled her eyes in return.

"Gee now I understand, thanks Perce!" said Jason, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Have I ever told you that you have a remarkable talent for explaining absolutely nothing in your 'explanations'."

Jasons sarcasm was completely lost though as Percy and Annabeth started another bickering round, this time of 'How do you know Jason's.

"Alright ill just leave you two to sort it out." Jason decided and promptly left the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of something alcoholic looking as he went.

"Fine since your not going to be mature about this then I will." Percy said in a cruel mocking voice, tacking a fake grin on the end. "I met Jason at the all boys high school we both went to and I've been best friends with him since year seven!" He said this as if it were a contest and he'd just won.

Annabeth smiled smugly at him and countered, "I was best friends with his sister since kindergarten and ive been friends with him since year one. So that makes it what, fourteen years? Compared to your measly eight." And she finished with a look of indignation.

"Well it doesn't matter about the number of years you've known someone for. Only the quality of your friendship." Was Percy's half assed reply, which he looked proud of.

She was about to shoot back some reply about her still winning then, when her earlier words suddenly hit her. She'd just talked about Thalia just tossed her into the conversation, and in past tense too, like it didn't mean anything. It was a stupid petty argument and Annabeth just used her like a playing piece in some idiotic game. All the color had drained from her face and a concerned look was starting to appear Percy's face as he looked at her.

"Wait Annabeth what did you say about…" Percy's face was now screwed up in concentration as he tried to think, "Did you say you were best friends with Jasons sister?" realization struck Percy and the look of guilt that washed over his face would have been funny if they were not in this situation. "Oh God Annabeth, I'm so sorry. I should've asked you… I should've done… something."

But Annabeth wasn't really listening. She was becoming overwhelmed by the sounds and the feelings that were attacking her. She was slowly getting stuck inside her head, she was in a race now to try and control her breathing. She knew what was happening of course. It had happened many times before, the words 'Panic Attack' were swimming around in her head along with the alarm bells and the frightening emotions. She knew that she had a system to deal with this too, a way of grounding herself, bringing her back to the real world. But she couldn't remember it, something about five things… five thing she could see? Was that it? She needed to get out of here, the music was too loud and it was crowding her already packed mind, but she couldn't make her self move, and she couldn't remember where the door was and her breathing was coming in fast pants now.

She was vaguely aware of Percy standing in front of her, his eyebrows scrunched up in worry so she managed to propel herself forward and grip tightly onto his shirt. She started murmuring "Percy, get out, get out." Over and over again and she felt a hand on her back leading her through the crowd and towards the door. The hand on her back was the only thing she focused on now, the light pressure leading her to safety. She told herself that it was the only thing that mattered, that she would be safe as long at that hand was there.

A blast of cold air hit her and she realized that she must be outside. Suddenly Percy's arms were around her and he was muttering soft words to her. "its ok Annabeth you're safe, nothings gonna hurt you, its not your fault. You're safe." Over and over again he said this until her breathing began to slow and she wasn't digging her nails into Percy shirt quite as hard as she was before.

She breathed out a long breath and buried her head in Percy's neck. "I'm sorry." she mumbled into his shoulder. Now that she wasn't overwhelmed by… everything, she was starting to feel embarrassed, weak, venerable, ashamed. This was one of the worst parts, the fact that she always felt so ashamed of her self for falling apart like that.

"No Annabeth." Percy said strongly, "you don't say that ok? Theres nothing to be sorry for. You never have to be sorry for that." Annabeth felt her tears start to gather in Percy's shirt and she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tightly by way of thanks.

They stood there for who knows how long, just holding each other until their legs started to hurt and Percy lead her over to a bench. They sat close together, arms and legs pressing against each other, Percy holding her hands in his as if he was warming them up, despite the fact that it was as least 30 degrees (Celsius) outside.

"D'you wanna talk about it?" he asked after a while. Annabeth looked up at him, biting her lip. "I s'pose I owe you an explanation." She replied.

"You don't owe me anything Annabeth. I only want you to tell me if you want to." He said leaning into her shoulder.

"I think, I do want to tell you."

And she did she told him about Thalia about how wonderful she was, about all their inside jokes, all the trouble they got into. The way that Thalia made Annabeth feel wanted and happy, something that her parents never supplied. And she also told him about the bad things, the types of boys that Thalia would date, the ones that didn't deserve her in the slightest, the ones that used and abused her. He told her how many times Annabeth had pleaded with her to stop, to dump those assholes. But it was never enough.

And those boys weren't even the worst. The worst thing that ever happened to Thalia came in the form of Luke Castellan. He seemed better than the other boys at first, he seemed to genuinely care about Thalia. And she loved him, not just the crushes or attraction she'd had with the other guys, she was heart meltingly and earth shatteringly in love with him. Annabeth was so happy for her and life was bliss for about six months, until Annabeth started noticing the bruises.

She had confronted her about them but Thalia had brushed her off saying "I ran into a door handle" or "I tripped on the stairs" and Annabeth had so wanted to believe her. But when she witnessed it in action, when she saw him hit her through the window she couldn't ignore it anymore. She pleaded with Thalia but she wouldn't listen. She yelled at Annabeth "You're always trying to ruin my happiness, you never like any of the boys I date. I love Luke and I'm not leaving him."

And that's when Thalia started ignoring Annabeth, not answering her texts, straight up pretending not to see her when they passed each other in the hallways. So Annabeth got Jason involved, who in turn got the police involved when he realized the severity of the situation. And they got her away from him and she cried and cried and told them how sorry she was.

And then they found out about the cheating. Throughout the whole relashionship, the whole seven months she had been seeing a different girl every other night. And that's what broke her, not the abuse but the fact that he didn't even care about her enough to stay faithful.

"She struggled on for about a year." Annabeth said to Percy, her voice breaking. "We did what we could, we got her into therapy and she looked like she was getting better. But…" Annabeth sucked in a deep breath and tried to go on. Percy pulled her into his arms, bringing her legs up to sit on his.

"One night about a year ago, she passed him in the street." Annabeth whispered into Percy's shoulder, saying the words only loud enough for him. "He didn't see her but it broke her, to see him in such a casual situation, living his life as if nothing had happened. " Tears started to leak from her eyes now as she sobbed.

"She got really drunk that night." She continued, pressing her face into Percy's shoulder. "And she- she got into her car and… I couldn't stop her Percy! Its all my fault! She'd still be her if id fucking done something, anything!"

She sat there in Percy's arms, just basking in the feeling of being safe for once. They sat there wrapped in each others embraces for a long time until she started to feel better. And she did. She'd finally done it, she'd told somebody. And she could see the path to recovery becoming all that much easier if she had Percy by her side, if she let him in, let him help.

"Come on." Percy said, breaking the who knows how long silence. He stood up and held a hand out to her as an invitation. "I wanna show you something."

She took his hand and for the first time in a very long time she trusted someone.


End file.
